Catholic Charismatic Renewal?

The Catholic Charismatic Renewal began nearly 50 years ago. To read the story of the beginnings, click here. Since then, over a hundred million Catholics worldwide would highlight a renewed experience of their faith in the context of the CCR.

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At its core, the experience of all of these people would be that they recognized their own inability to lead a full and fired-up Christian life by their own efforts and invited the Holy Spirit to do it on their behalf. At that moment (in technical language), CCR would say they experienced the ‘Baptism in the Holy Spirit’.

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This ‘Baptism in the Holy Spirit’ is not a one-off moment. Like leaking buckets, we constantly need to be refilled and remain open to the water of the Spirit. This disposition can be described as living ‘Life in the Spirit’.

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This new ‘Life in the Spirit’ should be characterized by a stronger commitment to service and mission. One of the unique dimensions of the CCR is the openness and desire to share the ‘gifts of the Spirit’, which are described in the New Testament Letters, and which include (but are not only) the ‘charismatic gifts’.

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This article by Charles Whitehead describes the place of CCR in the Church and its impact.

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Describing God’s activity is a hard thing to do. The grace of God through the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) has impacted the lives of millions of people throughout the world over the past 50 years, and every individual would express that experience in her or his own unique way. A personal experience of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, who brings alive in new ways the graces of our baptism. The Holy Spirit not only sets on fire all that we have already received, but comes again in power to equip us with his gifts for service and mission. Unpacking this description, we can see that CCR is: